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Central Karakorum National Park
Pakistan
Date of Submission: 12/04/2016
Criteria: (viii)(ix)
Category: Natural
Submitted by:
Government of Pakistan, Directorate General of Archaeology
State, Province or Region:
Gilgit - Baltistan
Coordinates: N36 55 55 E75 5 2
Ref.: 6112
Description
The Central Karakoram in the Gilgit-Balitstan region of Pakistan is an extreme mountain area between Skardu and
Gilgit. It was declared as the Central Karakoram National Park (CKNP) in 1993 and today it is the largest protected
area in Pakistan, covering over 10,557.73 km2 in the Central Karakorum mountain range. The area is part of the
Asian high-mountain system of Hindukush- Karakorum-West Himalaya, and is the highest park in the world.
The park is in a highly active tectonic zone. About 60 million to 20 million years ago, the Indian continental plate
subducted under the Eurasian plate and, with the effects of extrusion and uplift of the Indian plate, several immense
mountains were formed. Huge tectonic forces stemming from this collision of one plate with another have
progressively thrown up the Karakoram Mountains making it one of the most tectonically-active locations in the world.
The Park encompasses the longest glaciers outside the Polar Regions, making up 40% of the park area. This forms
the most important and fragile ecosystem of the entire region. Famous glaciers such as Hispar, Biafo, Baltoro and
Chogo Lungma form complex glacial systems occupying valleys and in some cases entire watersheds.
In an area of such intense geomorphological activity, it is not surprising that landslides are a common occurrence.
The region of the park has an ambivalent relationship with these events, on the one hand they bring disaster and
destruction, but at the same time they reconfigure the landscape, creating new landforms with potential for habitation
and agriculture. For example, villages and their fields are often located directly on land resulting from former
landslides.
The Karakorum Range lies in a transitional zone between the arid Central Asia and the semi-humid tropics of South
Asia. Within the CKNP there is a variety of ecosystems, from rock cliffs to juniper shrub land, conifer and broadleaf
forests and alpine pastures, home to a very high level of biodiversity. These diverse ecosystems provide a refuge for
threatened species of mammals such as arkhor, musk deer, snow leopard, Ladakh urial and Marco Polo sheep, and
also for important “flagship” species including the Himalayan Ibex and Lynx, Blue Sheep and Grey Wolf.
This environmental “hotspot” is also reflected in one of the most diverse avifauna of the mountainous regions of the
world, with approximately 90 species of birds in 13 families known to occur in the CKNP. Alpine and moraine lakes
are important stopovers on the Indus flyway and are part of one of the largest migratory bird routes in the world.
There are 230 settlements of approximately 115,000 people living immediately adjacent to the park, the borders of
which have been designed to exclude all villages and pasture lands. However, these communities have traditional
rights in the park area to access seasonal pastures for grazing, hunting, collecting firewood, timber and medicinal
plants.
Justification of Outstanding Universal Value
The Central Karakorum National Park is a place of superlatives: the highest park in the world, containing within its
borders sixty peaks over 7,000 m. and ten of the world’s highest and most famous mountains including four peaks
more than 8000 m.a.s.l. and K2, the second highest peak in the world. This density of exceptionally high peaks is an
important attribute of the park’s OUV.
From a geological and structural point of view, the CKNP is located in an area of very active seismicity, one of the
main triggering factors in the occurrence of landslides. To live in such a high risk environment, it is necessary to learn
to cohabit with extremely dangerous phenomena and to identify the safest areas for the habitation. In this regard the
Central Karkorum has international scientific and geomorphological hazard significance because of the on-going
geological processes influencing its stability.
Almost half of the park comprises glaciers which are famous for the extent of the regular upsurges they undergo. In
the last century, 26 surges were detected in the Karakoram Range, rapid advances that involved at least 17 glaciers.
In 1955, Kutiah glacier advanced 12 km. in only three months, the fastest glacial surge ever recorded. Glacier
tongues enlarge and push forward at a rapid pace, becoming devastating flows of ice and rock, blocking valleys,
closing roads and caravan routes and creating lakes.
This trend in upsurge is part of a complicated phenomenon known as the "Karakoram Anomaly," where glaciers in
the Karakoram mountains have overall remained stable and even increased in mass, in contrast to many glaciers
nearby and worldwide which have receded during the past 150 years, particularly in recent decades. New studies
reveal that the area has a unique weather pattern that keeps the ice cold and dry during the summer months. Unlike
the rest of the Himalayas, the Karakoram region is not negatively affected by summer monsoon season, when
although the ice melts a little, the melting is offset by heavy snowfall in the extremely cold winters.
Criterion (viii): Central Karakoram National Park is an outstanding example representing major stages of earth’s
history, including past and continuing geological processes in the development of the Himalayan massif; the dramatic
growth and formative action of some of the world’s most important glaciers; and the continuous cycle of landform
change brought about by the dynamic force of landslides.
Criterion (ix): As a regional priority area for conservation of bird and animal species, CKNP is an outstanding
example of significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of mountain
ecosystems.
Statements of authenticity and/or integrity
CKNP includes within its boundary all the key interrelated and interdependent elements necessary to express its
Outstanding Universal Value. The national park is of more than adequate size to ensure compete representation of
these features and natural processes, spanning over 10,333.3 km2 of valleys, mountains, glaciers, forests, meadows
and rivers. It represents the great range of geological forms, altitude and climatic conditions that have carved out
distinctive ecological zones, from alpine dry steppe to permanent snow fields and cold deserts, with their associated
rare and in some case threatened species.
It comprises a Core Zone area protecting the major geological, glacial and environmental elements, surrounded by a
Buffer Zone which is discontinuous, delineated only in those areas where its function is necessary. The property has
been delineated to exclude nearby permanent human settlements while allowing sustainable traditional uses and a
fundamental role for local communities in the management and protection of the park. The CKNP does not suffer
from adverse effects of development and/or neglect; it is essentially pristine and an integrated park management plan
has been developed to provide continuing care and protection.
Comparison with other similar properties
The World Heritage List includes properties which share some of the values expressed in the Central Karakorum
National Park: The first of these, Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Park in India highlights biodiversity of its
alpine meadows and peaks. The OUV of Tajik National Park (Mountains of the Pamirs) lies in its exceptional beauty,
and two main habitat types of Continental Cold Winter Deserts and Vavilov Centers which are important gene pools
of wild relatives of cultivated plants. Great Himalayan National Park Conservation Area in India is a compact area for
conserving habitat and biological diversity which offers the best chance for survival of numerous temperate and
subalpine species. The OUV of Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal, in the eastern Himalayas, is based solely on its
superlative and exceptional natural beauty embedded in the dramatic mountains, glaciers, deep valleys and majestic
peaks.
There are three comparative properties on the World Heritage Tentative List. The OUV of Kangchendzonga National
Park, India.is a mixed nomination, based on cultural and natural criteria (iii), (vii) and (x). It is the highest of the
countries high altitude parks with a wide variety of ecological conditions. However, the emphasis for nomination is
placed on the deep Buddhist cultural associations that set the property apart. Similarly, the Cold Desert Landscape of
India, between the Greater Himalayas of India and the main Tibetan Plateau, is a cultural landscape with exceptional
intangible Buddhist cultural resources ranging from performing arts, crafts, literary works, customs, myths and beliefs.
The Karakorum - Pamir in China includes the most important tectonic suture lines of the Pamirs, which are unique to
the Pamirs and a drier and quite different environment from the southern slopes than that included in the proposed
site in Pakistan.
None of these properties carries OUV based on the same combination of attributes seen in Central Karakorum
National Park: the density of exceptional peaks and dramatic range of elevations and ecosystems of global value,
concentration of dynamic geological forces, active seismicity and exceptional glacier growth and movement.